NOVEMBER 2003: Climate response to the increase in tropospheric ozone since preindustrial times

Using a general circulation model, we compared the climate response to a realistic tropospheric ozone increase to (1) the response to a uniformly applied ozone increase and (2) the response to a CO2 forcing equivalent in magnitude to the ozone forcing.

Left panel: Annual mean temperature response as a function of altitude for the calculated increase of ozone since preindustrial times (blue curves) and for an equivalent 18-ppb uniform increase of ozone (green curves). The solid lines represent the Northern Hemisphere averages, and the dotted curves are for the Southern Hemisphere. Right panel: Annual and global mean temperature response as a function of altitude for (a) the calculated increase of tropospheric ozone since preindustrial times (blue curve), (b) an equivalent 18-ppb uniform increase of ozone (green curve), and (c) an equivalent 25-ppm increase of CO2 (red curve).

For more details, see Mickley et al., 2003 [Abstract] [Full Text (PDF)]